Opportunity Amidst Crisis: Why Nonprofits Shouldn’t Go Back to Normal
Featuring: The P4H Haiti Staff. They are the face of change in Haiti.
The coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage lives around the globe. From deaths to economic loss to psychological struggles, the pangs of this virus will be felt for years to come. As we grapple with the serious implications of COVID-19, nonprofits and missions groups are faced with an unprecedented opportunity. Amidst this crisis, there’s an invitation to innovate, to pivot, to reinvent ourselves. Although it’s tempting to return back to normal, we shouldn’t. Normal was the problem. Let me explain.
The first two COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Haiti on March 19th, 2020. Hours later, by midnight, every border was closed and all commercial flights were cancelled. For the days following, many nonprofit employees and missionaries were extracted from the country and projects across the nation came to an abrupt halt. As the vast majority of the international world exited the country, Haitians remained in Haiti. Rightfully, Haitian nationals were tasked with taking charge and leading their people through these challenging times. Lives depended on their leadership.
Here is the problem: Historically, charity to Haiti has come in the form of handouts - mainly food, clothes, buildings and money. In a time of crisis like COVID-19, we ought to ask ourselves:
“How have we strategically invested in the capacity of Haitians so that they can operate and succeed without us?”
“If we can’t return for another 6 months, can our Haitian partners carry out the work we were doing?”
A healthy nonprofit is one who’s programmatic goals and activities directly connect to the independence and capacity-building of vulnerable communities. In other words, a healthy nonprofit is actively working themselves out of a job. This hasn’t been the case with most nonprofits and missions groups in Haiti and around the globe.
As a Haitian American who’s worked in Haiti for over a decade, I am keenly familiar with the harmful charity that plagues my home country, but toxic charity is not unique to Haiti. Scholars such as Dr. Lupton in his book Toxic Charity, Dambisa Moya in her book Dead Aid, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert in their book When Helping Hurts, and many others have stressed the dangerous effects of our common giving practices. Philanthropy across the globe is characterized by deep cycles of aid that cause an unhealthy dependence on the giver while stripping the receiver of dignity.
Our ‘normal’ in the nonprofit world hasn’t been working.
COVID-19 presents us with a unique opportunity we might have otherwise missed.
Now is our chance to dig deep and do better. Nonprofits and missions groups work with vulnerable communities that desire real change, and we can be part of that change. We have a divine opportunity to reimagine what our partner communities could look like years from now without our interventions. How can you ensure you are on the right track? Here are my top 3 tips:
1. Ask before you aid
Dialogue with local community leaders should be the foundation of all of our interventions. It’s easy to assume and project your desires onto local communities, but it’s their community, and their voice should be the prominent one. Ask about their dreams and goals. Ask about the assets they already have in their community. Ask them what role you play in helping them reach the goals they’ve set out for themselves. Ask before you aid, always.
2. Find the real heroes
It is common to see outsiders positioned as the “hero” instead of locals being the heroes of their own stories. Local communities should be the ones bringing solutions to their problems. They should be the ones taking leadership roles and guiding their communities to change. When the internationals return home, local communities remain because they are already home. They are the most invested in solving local problems because they are the most implicated. Our responsibility, therefore, is to affirm their dignity, invest in their capacity and then get out of the way and watch them transform their community.
3. Evaluate your impact
Too often nonprofits celebrate their reach without acknowledging impact. If you’ve served 500 people but had little impact, your interventions may be wasting precious time and resources. Evaluation is key. Every activity should be connected to a short-term, mid-term, and long-term goal. These goals should be continuously addressed and assessed.
COVID-19 has radically transformed the plans and schedules we had for 2020. Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to change course and amplify our impact. My hope is that nonprofits around the world will lean into these challenging times and reimagine how we can better achieve independence and capacity-building in vulnerable communities. COVID-19 will forever reshape our world, and it’s our responsibility to ensure it’s for the better.
NOTE: If you want to learn more about how to sustainably help communities, join me in the P4H Global Sustainable Development Master Class. This 4-week, live online course is dedicated for nonprofit leaders, mission trip participants, and anyone desiring to partner with communities to make lasting positive change. For more information or to enroll in our upcoming cohort, visit www.p4hglobal.org/master-class.